Local colleges educate students on cybersecurity

For people such as Jake Mihevc, sometimes educating students to work in a rapidly changing global market starts with seeds planted locally.

Mihevc is the director of the Cybersecurity Training Program at Mohawk Valley Community College, home to the roughly year-old cybersecurity training lab where students are getting hands-on skills training ranging from building a basic computer to trouble shooting and solving data-threat problems.

"Students work together and they are ready for these work problems right when they develop a solution," he said.

Mihevc said there is a constant supply of students to fill classes.

In the four years since the program's inception, the program has educated 140 students. And, there is a 20 percent growth in program enrollees every year — an industry trend, he said.

Where do they come from?

Oftentimes, freshman college students come to the program as the result of exploration activities between the college and local high schools, such as an upcoming summer camp experience at MVCC where young students can learn the basics of networking.

Also, this summer, MVCC cybersecurity students are gearing up for an event called the Hackathon. There, each team gets computers that have been compromised in one way or another and they must figure out how to secure any viruses and secure the system.

Utica College, which was one of the first educational institutions in the country to offer an economic crime investigation degree back in the mid-1990s, offers a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity and information assurance, as well as a master’s degree in cybersecurity intelligence, forensics and cyber operations. It also has a master’s degree in cyberpolicy and risk analysis.

For Mihevc, giving students a more hands-on education prepares them to think on their feet in the future.

"From MVCC, students can transfer to four-year degree programs, but they get real-world, hands-on experience at MVCC through activities like the Hackathon," Mihevc said.